The invention relates generally to hitching members for connecting a towed vehicle to a towing vehicle, and more particularly to a tool for use in moving a collar on a telescoping towing arm from a locked position to a released position to allow the towing arm to extend and collapse telescopically.
Tow bar assemblies for use as hitching members are common in the art. These assemblies generally use two towing arms which are coupled between a towing vehicle and a towed vehicle. It is desirable to be able to fold the tow bar assembly for storage. To this end, tow bar assemblies with collapsible arms have been suggested. This allows the towing arms to fit in a smaller space when not in use. Therefore, these towing arms are generally movable between a collapsed storage position, and an extended towing position. A preferred design for the towing arms uses an inner and an outer telescoping leg. They must be provided with some means for locking the arms in the extended position to hold the towed vehicle at a substantially constant distance from the towing vehicle during towing.
It has been shown in the prior art to use a slideable locking collar on telescoping towing arms in a tow bar assembly, as for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,166, and in an application filed concurrently with this application, in order to accomplish locking the arms in place. This collar is moveable between a locked position and a released position. When in the locked position, the collar holds a catch in place through a hole in the outer telescoping leg and against a groove in the inner telescoping leg, thereby preventing the legs from telescoping relative to each other. Tension or compression can develop in the towing arms, thereby tending to force the catch outward, away from the inner leg. This presses the catch against the collar, making it difficult to move the collar from the locked position to the released position in order to collapse the legs.
The difficulties encountered in the prior art and discussed above are substantially eliminated by the present invention.